The author quotes Chuck DeVore, a CA state legislator for 6 years who now works for the Texas Public Policy Foundation:
California’s job market has rebounded on the strength of Pacific Rim markets, Silicon Valley, and the creative industries. But the Golden State’s big-government-knows-best policymakers continue to export jobs from more traditional sectors of the economy. The net result is a widening rift between the elites who live within ten miles of the Pacific and the rest of the state. It’s only a matter of time before California’s high-tax, heavy-regulation policies will cause the state to once again lead the nation in job losses.Governor Brown has evidently bet that the high tech sector can keep growing enough to carry the rest of the state. That plus a wave of affluent retirees who can afford the high cost to enjoy what most admit are the nicest weather and scenery in the continental U.S.
Brown hopes those two sectors will bring in enough wealth. Then an army of public servants will tax that wealth, and spend the taxes supporting, managing and controlling the much greater army of poor service workers, ag workers, welfare recipients, and illegal immigrants. "Hope" isn't much of a plan.
